About Me

Hello! My name is Rebecca Harrington and I am a science journalist. I received my Master’s degree from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program in December 2015. In May 2014, I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.A. in Professional Journalism and a B.S. in Biology.

I began as an editorial intern at Tech Insider in August 2015, and became a full-time reporter there in February 2016. In July 2016, I moved to the news team at Business Insider, where I run the front page and cover international breaking news as a reporter and editor, with an expertise in science and health.

In summer 2015, I was an intern at Popular Science, straddling the print and online sides of the publication to tell science stories in the most fun and interesting ways possible. In spring 2015, I was the Online Editorial Intern for Scientific American, where I wrote stories, identified pieces to publish from our syndication partners and assisted with daily editorial duties. I was also the Editor in Chief of Scienceline, SHERP’s student-run online magazine from 2014-15. As Editor in Chief, I was the final editor and publisher of every story, managed 10 reporters and editors, and led a website redesign.

As an undergraduate student, I was the science and technology reporter at the Minnesota Daily for a year and a half. Some of the major themes I covered included notable research discoveries, diversity in STEM fields, access to technology, public perceptions of science and dwindling research funding. I worked on daily deadlines writing two to four stories and one or two blogs per week. I was then the City Editor from 2013-14, managing four to six reporters covering science, technology, health, environment, business, housing, courts, crime, local and state government, and neighborhoods.

I worked at the Star Tribune as a student reporter on assignment on the health desk in spring 2014. There, I wrote stories on topics including health care disparities, sexual assault, pesticide protests and HPV vaccines. I was the science writing intern at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY during the summer of 2014. There, I wrote stories ranging from high energy physics to systems biology. I also helped facilitate a communication workshop for science students interning at the Lab.

Above all, I want to make science news understandable and interesting to non-scientists. There is so much we can do to improve the communication gap between scientists and the public, and I want to try to fill it.

tl;dr I love science, I love journalism and I love combining them to make science news engaging and meaningful to non-scientists and scientists alike.